Prayer for the ill may do more harm than good

NEXT time you're sick consider asking your loved ones not to
pray for you.

A study of more than 1800 patients who underwent heart bypass
surgery has failed to show that prayers said for their recovery had
any impact. In fact, some of the patients who knew they were being
prayed for did worse than others who were only told they might be
prayed for.

The patients in the study at six US hospitals included 604 who
were actually prayed for after being told they might or might not
be; another 597 who were not prayed for after being told they might
or might not be; and a group of 601 who were prayed for and told
they would be.

The praying was done by three Christian groups. It started on
the eve of or day of surgery and lasted for two weeks.

Among the first group  who were prayed for but only told
they might be  52 per cent had post-surgical complications,
compared with 51 per cent in the second group, who were not prayed
for though told they might be.

In the third group, who knew they were being prayed for, 59 per
cent had complications.

After 30 days, however, the death rates and incidence of major
complications was about the same across all three groups, said a
report published in the American Heart Journal.

"Intercessory prayer itself had no effect on whether
complications occurred (and) patients who were certain that
intercessors would pray for them had a higher rate of complications
than patients who were uncertain but did receive intercessory
prayer," it said.

The study was designed only to try to measure the impact of
intercessory prayer on heart surgery patients, not to address the
existence of God.

Most patients believed in spiritual healing and thought friends
or relatives would be praying for them as well.

The authors warned it might be impossible to disentangle the
effects of study prayer from background prayer, and said a possible
limitation was that those doing the special praying had no
connection with the subjects.

"Private or family prayer is widely believed to influence
recovery from illness, and the results of this study do not
challenge this belief," the report concluded.

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1143441338371-theage.com.auhttp://www.theage.com.au/news/world/prayer-for-the-ill-may-do-more-harm-than-good/2006/03/31/1143441338371.htmltheage.com.auReuters2006-04-01Prayer for the ill may do more harm than goodMichael Conlon, ChicagoWorld